Background and education

Reynier was born on 14 January 1771 in Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland. He was the son of Jacques François Reynier, a physician, and Caroline Chapuis. Through his father, Reynier descended from French Huguenots from the Dauphiné who fled to Switzerland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His brother (1762-1824), a naturalist and archeologist,